Author
Topic: my mini review (Read 6246 times)

I was not too big a fan of this movie. Although my initial distaste with it has faded a little bit since last night/this morning.

I felt The Last Airbender suffered a bit from what happened to The Happening: the great ideas in the movie were underdeveloped, and were pushed aside for the sake of moving the story along at a breakneck speed.

For example, the movie mentioned quite a few times that Aang felt guilty about the death of the Air Nomads. This is what I understood to be one of the major emotional plot points of the movie. And I felt that that ending scene with the tidal wave, when he reflects on the Air Nomads he lived with, and then the scene following with everyone bowing and Aang bowing back, would have had a lot more depth and emotional power had they focused on this aspect of the movie a little more. It just seemed like this was a pivotal idea in the movie, but it was just so underdeveloped that I only realized what a great idea it was way after I left the theatre.

I'm also going to have to side with some of the critics on this one when they say there is a ton of exposition. Literally a few minutes after the prologue explained everything to us, we had Katara and Sokka's grandma telling us the exact same information, which essentially brought the exciting and brisk pace the movie had established to a grinding halt.

Another thing I had an issue with was the bending. The effects were great, don't get me wrong, but all the martial arts that went into the simplest of bending really seemed...well...goofy to me. The show's bending seemed so natural, but it got to a point in the movie where I just wish they could just move the elements without the martial arts. I also felt that the distant view and long takes of the bending and fighting, while much better than the irritating quick-cut approach to fight scenes Hollywood employs, also sort of took away from the impact of some scenes. The prime example of this is when the Earth Benders rose up against the Fire Nation guards, it all happened so quick and in one take that the emotional power of the uprising was lost.

As far as the acting went...it was pretty good. A few weak performances (Nicola Peltz comes to mind), but the strong ones seemed to counterbalance them. Dev Patel, Aasif Mandvi, and Shaun Taub (sp?) were definitely the strongest. I loved Mandvi's portrayal of Zhao, forgoing the stereotypical tough and arrogant Commander that was in the show and instead opting to portray a weasly sort of guy who slowly unhinges as the movie progresses (made apparent by his wildish hair and twitchy eyes while he was killing the moon spirit; that was such a great scene. You could almost feel Zhao just reiterating ideas about the glory of the Fire Nation he had heard growing up when he was trying to convince Iroh (and himself) that it was ok to kill the Moon Spirit).

All in all, I thought this movie was pretty good in some parts, but just terribly average as a whole. The movie just felt like it was missing a soul, for lack of a better term. I didn't really feel like I was watching an M Night Shyamalan movie, although there were occasional parts in the movie I felt were great. And as much as I wish his first foray into this type of movie was all I hoped it would be (and yes, I did have big hopes for this movie), I have to say I can't wait for his return to smaller, more intimate movies.

In fact, having only seen the series once, I think I liked the scenes Night didn?t take from the show the most. My favorite scenes from the movie were when Zuko asked that boy what he knew of the Fire Nation Prince, Zhao?s degrading speech about Zuko (?a child wearing a costume??ouch), the Earth Kingdom man betraying Aang for money, and Aang finally accepting his role as the Avatar and bowing to the people, although he looked absolutely terrified doing so.

Oh, and as for James Newton Howard?s score?amazing as usual.

So, all in all, I thought the movie was definitely lacking in many places, but there were these strands of a great movie that showed up every now and then. I just wish they were explored more deeply.

i saw the movie a few hours ago and it had its flaws but it had strong points as welli must admit that the movie theater i went to, well, it was almost empty...(but it was the first showing of the day and in the morning so i don't know...)i'll fully review it later...

Logged

-who knocks at the guarded gate?-one who has eaten the fruit and tasted its mysteries

i saw the movie a few hours ago and it had its flaws but it had strong points as welli must admit that the movie theater i went to, well, it was almost empty...(but it was the first showing of the day and in the morning so i don't know...)i'll fully review it later...

Not too many people watch movies in the morning. They rather sit back and enjoy the morning news or drink coffee while driving. Specially if you live in the US. :-)

the problem is, i don't know WHAT to think of itthere was something wrong with it, something missing in it, but i can't figure out whati'll see it again sometime later and review itright now, i'm kinda confused with myself and how events are turning out...

Logged

-who knocks at the guarded gate?-one who has eaten the fruit and tasted its mysteries

Ok so I have a few quick ideas about the viewing of The Last Airbender and how people come away with it. They are a bit complicated to me so let me see how I can spew them out. I saw the film tonight and was actually quite pleased with what I came out with. I think that the story Night wanted to tell, by the way the story was written for the screen, portrayed a message not unlike that of the television series. I feel that any beef a very hardcore fan of the series might have with the film comes out of the plot, or the way the story weaves in and out of certain moments from the series these fans might feel are pivotal, or atleast entertaining and memorable. I definately recognized them having seen the series multiple times but excused them since I am not such a die hard fan of the "Avatarverse". Although I agree a bit more time could have been allowed for the duration of the film (which would have fixed many of the minor editing 'blemishes' I winced upon) I give credit to the fact that this wasn't just The Lord of The Rings and that it seemed to seek a younger audience with possibly a shorter attention span but also possibly more benificiary to the message portrayed by the series (and the film). And this is the point I wish to come to. I left the film with a sense of purpose. A sense of responsibility. A sense of entitlement to my life and the decisions I make. And a sense of being able to effect a small radius of change. I left the theatre wanting to abandon my car, walk home, and only utilize my bicycle for transportation for the rest of my life. I think the environmental aspect of The Happening can definately be seen transitioning through to The Last Airbender. And at any rate I feel that Night's vision for developing a lasting effect on the audience has improved. To this day I still drive on the highway and look at random spattering of trees and long prarie grasses and think of the awesome power of Mother Nature, and how fragile I am (and trust me, I did not like The Happening...at all...much.) I saw the last showing of The Last Airbender at a local theater and left with a large half moon in the sky. All I could think about was how magestic the world we live in must be, to be adaptive and yet dependent on such beautiful yet "unconscious" things. Another theme I felt Night clung to well in his version of the story was the play on diversity. Aesthetically, I enjoyed the costuming of the seperated nations and thought that this played well in the the side of Night's vision for a diverse cast and the escapism of the "avatarverse". A smaller world of four nations excentuates to the importance of unity and helps to guide the reality of a world with hundreds of nations by developing the unity of four. The parallels of industry to naturalism and spirituality cannot be missed, nor the the play on race within nationalism. Although the acting of the children playing some very iconic roles may seem forced at times I felt that the direction of the film really brought out the greater points the series has to offer and that these points might go a long way within our own world through the medium they were portrayed (a movie directed towards children, not fans of an anime series). A short conclusion I know, but I remember saying I had a few quick ideas...and these are anything but.